Crow is growing up, which means she has to start attending Wildwood Community Council meetings. Though she’s clever and empathetic, it’s hard to speak up sometimes when you doubt yourself. But when a strange creature appears in the woods, gathering leaves and taking over an abandoned cave, the other animals, including Fox, Squirrel, and Hare, wonder if they should take aggressive action against it. After all, they don’t know anything about it, and it’s acting in a suspicious way. Also, their own resources are growing scarce as floods encroach upon the woods.
Leaf
Through 4/20: Fri 7 PM, Sat–Sun 11 AM and 1 PM; touch tour and audio description Sat 3/22 1 PM (touch tour at noon), open captions Sun 3/23 1 PM, sensory-friendly performance Sat 3/29 1 PM; Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood, 773-761-4477, lifelinetheatre.com, $20, recommended for ages 4-11
Sandra Dieckmann’s 2017 children’s book, Leaf, adapted for Lifeline by Amanda Link (Nathaniel Niemi directs), works at multiple levels without ever becoming preachy. It’s about overcoming fear to speak up for what’s right. It’s about becoming aware of how climate change endangers others. And it’s about seeing strangers as fellow living beings first, instead of threats to your own way of life.
Leaf, you see, is a young polar bear who floated down to the north woods when the ice floe they were on broke away from their family. They’re gathering the leaves because they hope to make wings to fly home. As embodied in Caitlin McLeod’s breathtaking puppet (voiced and handled by Bradley Halverson), they win our hearts.
But so does every other character in this sure-handed and sweet tale. Shea Lee’s Crow makes us feel every little moment of anxiety as she struggles to find her voice, which makes her growth into an advocate even more compelling. Jake Busse’s Squirrel and Ariya Hawkins’s Fox provide cunning and witty support, and Alan Donahue’s set and Diane Fairchild’s lighting design capture the look of Dieckmann’s book with colorful and imaginative flourishes. “A story can change everything,” Crow tells us early on, and at least in the case of this delightful and timely family show, that’s absolutely true.
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